Mag -7.7 Iridium flare in Leo (Iridium 46 - 8/4-13)

[glappkaeft]

This was one of the brightest Iridium flares I have observed and the brightest I have managed to photograph. The center of the flare (est. mag. -8.0) passed a short distance to the east of our club observatory where Calsky estimated an magnitude of -7.7. The flare was bright enough to cast very sharp shadows of the mount and tripod on the ground (the sun and moon cast more diffuse shadows because of their larger angular size).

The satellite entered sunlight to the left of Regulus and flared just seconds later. It then continued upwards in the Leo "question mark" while fading away. This wasn't a pre-planned observation but I checked the Iridium flare app on my iPhone after setting up the telescope and noticed it. Since the flare was unusually bright I then used the Calsky website and the zoom lens to find an interesting field.

I used my Canon 600D and Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 IF EX DG HSM lens @ f=48 mm, F/4, ISO 1600 mounted on a Celestron CG-5. One 60 second exposure for the flare and three additional 180 second exposures was to improve the field stars and the background.

[Ant]

Very nice! I've seen a few as bright as -5 or -6 but never one that bright.

You did well to capture it as well, lovely image

Ant

[slickfonzy]

Brilliant, they're such a lovely sight to see and that's a great image, thanks for sharing it.

[jgs001]

Very nicely captured

[SnakeyJ]

Surprisingly bright - I had not imagined them casting shadows.     Great capture and very nice starfield to set it off!

[andrew63]

That's pretty spectacular. 

andrew

[glappkaeft]

Thanks everyone. I'm pretty happy with the capture and how the processing turned out.

Surprisingly bright - I had not imagined them casting shadows.     Great capture and very nice starfield to set it off!

I have even heard of people seeing shadows from Venus or the center of the milky-way. I haven't  tried it myself but it sounds plausible, the half phase moon cast pretty obvious shadows and is not THAT much brighter.